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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22357477">we're all part of the century</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus'>handschuhmaus</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alchemy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Crack, Anti-Muggle Content, Crack Treated Seriously, Cult Recovery, Culture Shock, F/M, Food, Football | Soccer, Gen, Mathematics, Muggle Technology, Muggle/Wizard Relations, Physics, Women Being Awesome, in which the Black sisters have Interests</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:15:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>680</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22357477</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>what if the Black sisters got interested in some things that were not strictly of the wizarding world?</em>
</p>
<p>Bellatrix chances upon a theory about the world by looking for a book she happened upon. Narcissa wonders if she could impress her fiance via the same avenue, and Andromeda is encouraged by the conjunction of their pursuits to look into an interest she had been steadfastly ignoring. The story will unfold differently this time...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Bellatrix Black Lestrange &amp; Narcissa Black Malfoy &amp; Andromeda Black Tonks, Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Rodolphus Lestrange, Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>we're all part of the century</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>although I was inspired for this while listening to Florence + the Machine "Strangeness and Charm", the title is taken from the We Were Promised Jetpacks track "Moving Clocks Run Slow". More developments of the 20th century feature than just modern physics ;)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The firstie is a Ravenclaw, a girl, stopped by a couple of Slytherin boys because--well, probably, in retrospect, because she isn't a pureblood, but it sounds very much to twelve year-old Bellatrix Lestrange as if the issue is that she possesses a book about trains while being a girl. "Look, it's fine," she says, and they back off, because you don't cross a Black, and the 'Claw flees, leaving Bellatrix the book. She doesn't get to read very much of it, only a couple pages about the well-engineered train with a light beaming through it, and something about the light purifying the contents of the train, at which she doesn't bat an eye, because, again, Black family. <em>Why</em> she doesn't get to read much of it is due to yet another Slytherin boy seizing the book (saying "Clearly that's a <em>Muggle</em> train!") and tossing it into a <em>clogged</em> toilet in the boy's restroom. Bella is certainly daring enough to go in after it, but not determined enough, under the circumstances, to attempt to recover the now literally shitty book. (stupid boys!)</p>
<p>She convinces Andi to ask the librarian about it, not certain that she wants a reputation as someone who reads about trains, but there are a grand total of two books that discuss trains at any length in the Hogwarts Library: <em>Hogwarts, a History</em> covers the Hogwarts Express, and someone named Derwent Vister wrote "Why a Train to Hogwarts?: Wizard Travel Debates In the Modern Age", which is, again, mostly about the Hogwarts Express, but has next to nothing to say about its engineering, let alone purifying beams of light. </p>
<p>It would probably have been sensible to give up at this point, but Bella is stubborn. She decides that the mockery with which she lost the book might have had some credence, and makes up her mind that, at some point in the next year, if at all possible, she will venture out into the dim and frightening world of a Muggle library. She will not bring Andi or Cissa; Cissa might be more prone to finding the experience scary, and Andi doesn't need more encouragement into Muggle matters.</p><hr/>
<p>A little eavesdropping and research informs Bella that Aquila Prince has a reputation as a Muggle-lover; in any case Miss Prince is... not an heiress and part of a family in disgrace since the head of the family had done <em>something</em> (the details aren't clear) fifty years back or more, and another Miss Prince went off and married a Muggle recently. So approaching Aquila Prince at a widely attended holiday party and asking if she can get Bella into a Muggle library is unlikely to quickly get back to the Black family and it'll be blamed on the older Muggle-loving spinster anyway.</p>
<p>Bella finds a book about light on a train. At first glance it doesn't appear to be the same, a slim volume in a very plain cover, but she starts reading anyway, on the off-chance it's a different edition or she'd found a child's abridgment.</p>
<p>By the time she's certain it's a very different book, the library is announcing that it's nearly closing time, and she is... unreasonably interested in the paradoxical and mind-bending behavior of light on trains.</p>
<p>Aquila arranges it then, that Bella can take it home over the rest of winter break, and she buries herself in it. It's mind bending, and confusing and absolutely charming: she wants more.</p>
<p>Nor does the intervening period of the school year stop Bellatrix from wanting more about this book. In fact, in March, so restless over the matter she can't stand it, she owls Aquila and asks if Miss Prince would do her the great favor ("and I shall owe you a considerable one, a debt between our families") of looking up more info about this "<em>relativity</em>". Aquila talks to a librarian, she says, and sends back an extensive list--charmed, thankfully, to turn to an ingredients list at the password of "one stone"</p>
<p>Bella makes plans to get them at the first opportunity the summer presents.</p>
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